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The Gracchi Brothers and modern parallels: Donald Trump as Tiberius Gracchus

In November of 2024, there is some chance that Donald Trump may be re-elected president. If this happens, there is, more likely than not, a real chance of return to street violence which will exceed levels seen after the last election of Trump.

Some time ago I was struck by recalling a similar event in history involving the brothers Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus. The course of events that were sent forth into history from their actions had a significant effect on the eventual fall of the ancient Roman Republic and establishment of the first Roman Empire. It was a transition steeped in violence and disarray that a superior external enemy could have exploited to conquer Rome, if one had situationally existed at that time.

Having the desire to write a brief history of the Gracci’s experience for purposes of contrasting it against the present, I came across this fine summary of the events on X by @Lessons_History. (Such time-saving discoveries falling into our hands are a real miracle at the moment. Time is just so much at a premium these days, so we thank the gods for this).

Most of you are aware of the incredible turn of events caused by the “January 6th event” which media and political interests have turned into a legal rapier to attempt destruction of a political opponent who has significant chance of winning re-election to the U.S. presidency. One can only imagine what a sudden power-shift of this nature could mean for a country. Tensions between political factions are high. Younger generations of politicians with questionable qualifications and even more questionable loyalties are reaching positions of governmental influence. The age of gentlemanly political give-and-take is coming to an end. Some key analysts are even predicting a second civil war is possible. Given the increasing levels of serious crimes in some major cities with decreasing law enforcement action, it is probably safe to say that this situation will either continue to get worse, or will be dealt with. But with a divided political landscape, it is looking like no overwhelming effective solution to such problems will be universally agreed to. Like the Roman Republic which gave way to an emperor who consolidated power backed up by loyal military alliances to solve problems which had spiraled out of control, will the U.S. face a reformation of its constitutional Republic into something else? It is impossible to know. Opinions vary.

So, with this in mind, let’s learn how similar events played out in the past, and how we may learn from this to assume a readiness posture of whatever nature may be appropriate for your circumstances. -WHA

by @Lessons_History via X

The Gracchi brothers, Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus (163 – 133 BC) and Gaius Sempronius Gracchus (154 BC– 121 BC), had a significant impact on the Roman Republic and its institutions. In this short essay, I will discuss the importance of the Gracchi brothers’ political careers, the significance of the Senate’s reaction to the deeds of the brothers, and comparisons to Donald Trump.

Tiberius Gracchus: the cycle of violence begins
The Gracchi brothers were plebeian nobles of the illustrious gens Sempronia. Raised in a prominent aristocratic family, they were nonetheless eligible for the office of the tribune of the plebs due to their plebeian status. Tiberius Gracchus, the elder of the two, was elected as plebeian tribune in 133 BC. He wasted no time and quickly initiated a series of reforms. His motivations are unclear. Some have claimed that he was eager to endear himself with the rural and urban poor to achieve great deeds and restore his reputation from the humiliation he had suffered due to his role in the surrender of the Roman army to the Numantines in Spain. In any case, there was great demand among the rural and urban poor of Rome for land reform. Population growth and migrations from the countryside to Rome had put considerable pressure on the living standards of the populace, and land reforms was needed. Tiberius Gracchus’ flagship reform, the Lex Agraria, sought to redistribute Roman public lands more widely and restrict the amounts of public lands allotted to one man. Naturally, wealthy landowners strongly opposed this law. Tiberius Gracchus, as Tribune of the Plebs, decided to bypass the Senate’s opposition and tried to pass the law through the people’s assembly (concilium plebis). The Senate tried to block this by securing the support of another plebeian tribute, Marcus Octavius, who vetoed the bill. Tiberius Gracchus then decided to take an unprecedented step: he manoeuvred to have the people’s assembly depose Octavius as tribune, arguing that by vetoing the Lex Agraria he had acted against the interest of the people. Following the deposition of Octavius, he looked for ways to successfully establish a land commission to oversea the Lex Agraria‘s financing and redistribution of public lands. To fund this, Tiberius proposed to use the treasury and resources of the Kingdom of Pergamum, which had been bequeathed to Rome by King Attalus III upon his death. This attempt by Tiberius disregarded the Senate’s control of financial and foreign policy matters. Furthermore, his attempt to gain re-election for the office of tribune was probably illegal since convention precluded consecutive terms. Tiberius secured his fate by seizing the Capitoline hill. He gathered his followers and took physical control of the electoral commission’s (comitia) headquarters to ensure his re-election. The Senate’s reaction was swift and brutal: Tiberius’ cousin Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica Serapio gathered a mob and attacked the comitia, framing Tiberius as a would-be tyrant. Tiberius and his supporters were bludgeoned to death. This was done extra-judicially without even a decree of the Senate to legitimize Nasica’s actions.

Gaius Gracchus, the Senate’s Final Decree, and its aftermath
His less well-known brother, Gaius Gracchus, would follow in his footsteps and proposed an even more ambitious program of land reforms, judicial reforms, and subsidized grain for Rome. By this point there was increasing violence in Rome with street fights between armed supported of different factions becoming more common. During a public event, a man who had jeered at Gaius was stabbed to death by his supporters. The Senate summoned Gaius and an ally of his to appear before the Senate to answer for the charge of murder, but Gaius refused to appear and took control of the Aventine hill with his armed supporters. This defiance and lack of respect for the Senate’s authority led the senate to issue the final decree of the senate (senatus consultum ultimum) for the first time, instructing the consul to use whatever means necessary to crush this rebellion and ensure the safety of the state. The consul Lucius Opimius gathered a force and attacked the Aventine hill, killing Gaius and his supporters. The Gracchi brothers’ violent deaths at the hand of the Senate initiated a cycle of violence in Rome, with armed gangs intimidating their enemies becoming a regular occurrence and murder and conflict becoming increasingly frequent. Tiberius’ murder by Nasica and his supporters was very symbolic and important because it was done extra-judicially against a prominent political figure. Although there was strong opposition to several of the Gracchi brothers’ reforms within some elements of the Senate, several of the Gracchi brothers’ reforms were preserved. This shows that the main thing that had bothered the senatorial elite was not necessarily the nature or content of these reforms, but the methods the Gracchi brothers had used to enact them. Tiberius had repeatedly bypassed the Senate and broken norms and conventions, while Gaius’ refusal to appear before the Senate was seen as a rebellion against the Senate’s authority and against the State. The picture that emerges from the events of Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus’ political career is one where Rome was in serious need of political reforms, but the Senate’s opposition and complacency enabled the ambitious and skilled Gracchi brothers to use the office of the tribune of the plebs to pass popular reforms in a fundamentally new way. Furthermore, the Gracchi’s careers had shown that Rome’s institutions were no longer working properly. The Senate killed them but failed to address the need to reform Rome’s institutions and bring harmony to Rome. This rising instability led to several civil wars (the Social War, Sulla’s Civil War, Lepidus’ uprising, the Catiline Conspiracy, Caesar’s Civil War, etc.), which all contributed to the Republic’s collapse.

Donald Trump, a modern Gracchus?
Over the last few years, several commentators have made comparisons between Tiberius Gracchus and Donald Trump, portraying both in a negative light and characterizing them as demagogues and populists. It is a good comparison in many ways because like Tiberius Gracchus, Trump emerged on the political scene due to the corruption and complacency of the American political establishment. Furthermore, as with Tiberius Gracchus, it is not so much the content of Trump’s policies that bothers the American political establishment, but Trump’s abrasive and unconventional style. Trump’s use of populist slogans and rhetoric, his condemnation of the Washington DC political class (the “Swamp”), and his unwillingness to respect and defer to the power of the federal bureaucracies (FBI, CIA, etc.) is what has motivated the establishment’s vociferous reaction against him. Moreover, the treatment of the January 6 ‘insurrectionists’ is remniscent of the judicial inquiry that tried and executed many of Gaius Gracchus’ supporters. However, what many of these commentators have failed to appreciate is the consequences of the ruling elites’ reaction to these politicians. Some elements of the Roman Senate used extra-judicial murder to eliminate Tiberius Gracchus while the American political establishment used dubious claims of Russian collusion in the 2016 elections (RussiaGate) to neutralize him and is now using “lawfare”, consisting of numerous politically motivated prosecutions, to prevent him from running once again for President. Instead of introspection and seriously try to understand which conditions enabled the rise of the Gracchi brothers or Trump, the Roman Senate and American political establishment attempted to eliminate the champion of the discontented—the Gracchi brothers and Trump—thinking that things will go back to normal once these people are neutralized. Nevertheless, the American political class will not be able to solve the problem simply by imprisoning or even assassinating Trump similar to how the Gracchi’s murder only led to more instability, violence and civil strife.

Conclusion
The murder of the Gracchi brothers initiated a cycle of political violence and instability that led to civil wars and the final overthrow of the Roman Republic by Augustus in 27 BC. It appears that the American oligarchy has not learned from the examples of history and is going to repeat the Roman Senate’s mistakes and further accelerate the downfall of the American political system.

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